Ruperto "Junior" Herrera: "In Cuba they limit everything to us"

A few years ago, in the 1990s, my oldest sons Javier and Henry were at the EIDE “Mártires de Barbados” in Cotorro with a group of boys who would later become great athletes, 2 of them were brothers Herrera, Ruperto and Roberto Carlos, sons of the great Ruperto Herrera Tabío, who was the axis of the Cuban basketball Olympic bronze medal, at the Munich '72 Olympic Games.

Today I talk with Ruperto's Junior; Unfortunately, his younger brother Roberto Carlos died early in Miami, at only 46 years old. What is the immense Junior doing who swept the courts with his explosive donquees, his open arms urging the public to follow the plays, his chivalry when offering interviews?

Well, todayCyberCuba It will clear up any unknowns about the eldest Herrera. Junior has lived in Argentina for 15 years.

Update us on your life in these four decades, away from your father and your little brother, now deceased.

It is an immense pleasure to talk to you through this video conference. You have made me remember those days of the Superior Basketball League in which you were that impartial journalist, but inside you suffered for your Capitalinos. Ha ha ha. I update you on my life since I have not returned to Cuba in 15 years.

I live in Argentina. I have three children, all Argentine: Alfonsina, 23 years old; Junior, 18 and Ema, 10. They are my life.

I can tell you that it is very difficult to be a father and that every day I understand mine more. You will remember that I was very rebellious, I was never the exemplary son. I didn't like being compared to my dad, a quiet, homely, very decent man. I liked the night, the dancing, the girls; Therefore, my dad was hard on me… I believed that!

Over time I realized that all I wanted was the best for me. We don't look alike, but we love each other. Me, despite our differences, big differences! I trust my dad. I can't stop thanking God for the father I have: he is a father, a mother, a grandfather, a friend. He never stopped supporting me, he gives me space, he lets you think. I can't imagine life without him.

As for my brother, Chispa, he was the best human being that life could give me; I miss him so much. When you leave Cuba you pour into your life, what you can earn, how to have quality of life and can you believe it? In two decades I never made a minute to go to Miami to see him and…You don't know how much it hurts me that he's gone.! We never lost touch, we loved each other but he is no longer there. It is very hard. At some point, in another dimension we will meet.

Rupertico's handsome face fills with tears. I was always a witness of that love. I hope he calms down and I change the conversation: what are you doing right now, what are you working on?

At this moment I am detached from the basketball that I played actively until I was 40 years old, but I discovered other things that attracted me a lot; Over time I discovered that I like the media. I work at a local station here in Colón, province of Entre Ríos, where I live.

I got to have two programs on local television: one sports program and another magazine. I did very well. I won an award for best cable show. Currently I have other projects because the world is constantly changing and if you don't want to be left behind you have to go at its pace. Freedom is in social networks. I'm going to create my YouTube channel. I like journalism.

I read online that you stated: “I am not more Cuban than anyone, but no one is more Cuban than me.” What does this have to do with the current oppressive, unequal, corrupt situation that the Island is experiencing?

Here in Argentina, due to the obvious closeness that exists with Che Guevara, there is a great passion for Cuba and at the same time a great lack of knowledge because they have a very wrong idea of our country. The Island is idealized, a great blow.

Furthermore, Diego Armando Maradona went to Havana, gave his full support and hence the disorientation. I feel 100% Cuban. I would give my life to have a rum on the Malecón but I am clear that I am totally against Cuban politics.

I believe that every human being deserves to have their own beliefs, their own determination, their own concept of how they see life and in Cuba they limit everything to us. For the simple fact of saying that you do not agree with the government, you can go to prison.

I believe that every human being deserves to have their own beliefs, their own determination, their own concept of how they see life and in Cuba they limit everything to us. For the simple fact of saying that you do not agree with the government, you can go to prison

I don't understand why... Why is it forbidden to think differently? Someone who comes from a communist, revolutionary background tells you, but as a human being, I have a brain, gray matter, I grew and evolved and I don't think the same as my father. Why? No one has to tell me how I should think or live.

I am openly against Communism and believe that Capitalism is the solution. Be careful, an ordered Capitalism, like that of Canada, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden where education and public health are guaranteed, why not?

Life proved me right because when many of us, the same ones who were still in the LSB, left, we were traitors, stateless. They erased our records, our performances.

Today many new athletes are professionals, they earn their money and in many cases they can return to Cuba. Were we right or wrong? Look at the players who go to the Classic despite being professionals.

People with an archaic, harmful mentality and great addiction to power banned us from many years of being able to share with the family, they tried to take away our dreams. No one is the owner of another's way of thinking... ah! I respect everything.

For example,my dad is a communist and I respect him. What I don't understand is how they can banish me from my country, imprison me simply for thinking differently. I don't understand. There has to be pluralism, a multi-party system because each person is a world. The dialectic prevails and in fact some athletes can now return to Cuba.

But stars like Omar Linares, Teófilo Stevenson, Leonardo Pérez have missed all the benefits of their tremendous quality. Leonardo “the Wolf” would have been, without a doubt, an NBA player and there he is in Cuba, dying of hunger; He let his best years pass because the reading was: the revolution, the Homeland, the flag, blah blah blah.

Who can say that I am a bad person because I am going to look for a destination abroad, that I will be paid for my talent and that I can return to my country? Do you know how my country would have been helped if every talented person, in whatever specialty, could come back and spend? How would that economy be? Without a doubt, much better than how it is, wouldn't it?

Who can say that I am a bad person because I am going to look for a destination abroad, that I will be paid for my talent and that I can return to my country? Do you know how my country would have been helped if every talented person, in whatever specialty, could come back and spend?

I myself am crazy, as I told you before, to go to Havana, to the Malecón, but I really want nothing to do with those bad politicians. They do not think about the people but about their own convenience. You just have to see them, increasingly rosy, increasingly thick, immersed in voting campaigns, promising such and such things, the same as they have been for 60-odd years; promises mostly unfulfilled.

You have been in Argentina for 24 years. In 1999 you decide to desert. Was it very difficult to give up so many things, your family, your friends, your Havana?

In Cuba I had friends who lived in a disastrous situation, who at that time (imagine now that everything is much worse) had a hard time eating, they lived in lots; the complete opposite of my existence, which was good.

I tell you, I had a life in Cuba that perhaps in Argentina many do not have. I don't deny that there is poverty here, there are places where people are dying of hunger, there are homeless people. My childhood, adolescence and youth in Cuba were privileged thanks to my father. If he had lived outside of Cuba, he would have been much better off, but he always supported his revolution.

When I grew up and from Rupertico I became Junior Herrera and became popular, I didn't pay anywhere, neither at the Ferminia, nor at the Palacio de la Salsa, nor at the Tropical because I was from Capitalinos, which was the “little jewel” of the club. basketball. Nice stage! I felt very good, I felt like a “Beatle.” The LSB surpassed the National Baseball Series (SNB).

Our ego fed us but we didn't have a penny. Then I realized that I only saw one dollar when I went out with the national team, but not because of the diet they gave us but for taking the anthological boxes of tobacco that are almost part of the Cuban athlete's uniform. It was crazy stuff. Sell the jumpsuits, the t-shirts... everything to return with something because what do you do with 2 dollars a day of diet!

I got tired of it and decided to stay. What could I lose?… Nothing! Because in Cuba at 30 years old they already consider you old and when you fall outside of the expectations for the next Olympic quadrennium they throw you out, they multiply you by zero, you stop interesting them, they throw you away! I played basketball until I was 40 here in Argentina and… at a good level! I stayed at 27 and played until I was 40.

In Cuba, at 30 years old they already consider you old and when you fall outside the expectations for the next Olympic quadrennium, they remove you, multiply you by zero, you stop being interested in them.

What if I regret it? Yes, but if it hadn't been done before. That I lost? Ah! not visit my country; I haven't seen my mom in a long time. I have been able to see my father, who belongs to FIBA, more: I have been able to hug him here, in Uruguay; I have been able to see it 3 or 4 times.

Knowing Ruperto Sr. as I do, those hugs must be eternal.

Hahahahaha that's right! He is my father. Simple, we don't talk about politics because he is still a communist and I am the opposite. But blood is blood. We respect each other. I want to visit Cuba again. I miss my mother, the neighborhood, the Malecón, my sister whom I love very much, now I have a nephew who is also named Ruperto; I still have friends although most of them are gone.

Junior, was it very difficult to be Ruperto Herrera's son?

Yes. It was very difficult until over time I realized that it was a source of pride. You know me when I was little: I hated school; Hey, in Fajardo, as an adult, I fell asleep in the classroom. I tell you that they took roll call and when they mentioned me and I said 'here', the roll stopped and whatever teacher it was said to me: “Are you Ruperto's son?”

And there came the famous phrases: “your dad is a great person,He was an excellent player, he is very human” Contra, my dad even appeared in my soup. At that moment it was an immense weight on my shoulders. He was first in his Fajardo course, he was full of books, upon graduating he was Head of the Chair.

Look, I went to Tropical, when I was marginalized by all the types of people who gathered there, and the guards at the doors, ex-wrestlers, e-boxers knew my dad and that's where I entered without problems. In my dreams my dad came out. Over time I got over it. I can assure you that I was the opposite of my father, but my dad is the best thing that has happened to me in my life.

About your career in Argentina: How many clubs, results, years?

I played with several clubs: Ferrocaril Oeste, Boca, Peñarol de Mar del Plata, Gimnasia de Comodoro, Ben Hur de Rafaela, Lanus, Central Entrerriano and Unión de Colón.

With Boca, a highly valued team, I went to a final with them and we lost to Atenas. With Gimnasia de Comodoro I won the league title. At first I had to prove that I could play basketball in a country that has history in the universe of this sport. I won two consecutive years as the Best Rebounder in the league. Furthermore, once retired I played in the Veterans League for three more years with Campos Echeverría. He was then 45 years old.

I was able to make a name for myself without anyone knowing me and I tell you this because in Cuba there was always a “stupid” person who blamed me for being on the national team because of my father, something that was never pointed out to me because I more than demonstrated my quality in the LSB.

Cuba is a great training school. Here you don't train as much, they are different systems. In Cuban high performance you train a lot, a lot.

That almost military repair served as a basis for me to play in Argentina where the training system is different and a way is sought to extend one's sporting life. Breaks and food and supplements are what they are, there are no inventions or shortages.

Add to this the prizes. You see the difference? In Cuba there was no food, transportation was fierce; everything is a problem... You thought that if you sacrificed yourself, as the leaders asked you in their daily speech, you could achieve your dreams but... it was all a fallacy! You didn't have a salary, you didn't eat the minimum necessary.

In Cuba there was no food, transportation was fierce; everything is a problem... You thought that if you sacrificed yourself, as the leaders asked you in their daily speech, you could achieve your dreams but... it was all a fallacy! You didn't have a salary, you didn't eat the minimum necessary.

Hey, Julita, it was a kind of slavery, although compared to the rest of us mortals perhaps we made a little difference. It was like giving your life for nothing: for a medal, a recognition, a gladiolus with a piece of paper?

And of course I can't enter a supermarket with the medal, not even an Olympic one! to buy anything. I have to come in with money, don't I?

What recognition allows me to buy a car, allows me to go on vacation, buy clothes? A little picture, a flower, a round of applause is not enough! And one of the good things about Capitalism is that your effort pays off. You work, you have; you train, you have. In Argentina I achieved the nationality of this beautiful country.

Rupertico... A remembrance of yours from those beautiful moments lived in the Superior Basketball League?

Oh Julita! The LSB came to be equal in emotion, spectacularity and dissemination with the SNB and perhaps even surpassed it. Those multipurpose rooms in Havana, Santiago, Guantánamo, Villa Clara, Ciego de Ávila... packed! With delusional hobbies.

Maestro René Navarro was in charge of renaming us and thus Roberto Carlos was "el Chispa"; Roberto Amaro, "the Arrow"; Leopoldo Vázquez, "the Helicopter"; Ángel Oscar Caballero, "the Ninja"; Lázaro Borrell, "the Bull, the Virtuoso, an NBA"; Ernesto Williams, "the Bear"; Edel Casanova, "the Fox". That was crazy!

In all the fields in the country the police had to surround the bus where they transported us from the number of fans who approached us to applaud us or shout at us, depending on the case. Without discussion! Those moments have been the best of my life, the recognition of the people.

It is unfortunate that nothing remains of that, since Cuban basketball has gone from being a great spectacle to just another sporting event in the annual INDER programming, an event with more sorrows than glories.

Have you ever dreamed of the NBA?

Look, any basketball player in the world, man or woman, dreams of the NBA or the WNBA in the case of girls, but I always had my feet on the ground and I know that my potential, my talent did not reach there, furthermore of not having been prepared for it; the ceiling is very high.

Of the Cubans I have seen in Cuba, Lázaro Borrell achieved it; Andrés Guibert, too; Leonardo Pérez, as I told you before, surely would have been; perhaps Ángel Oscar Caballero and my brother Roberto Carlos could have been in that elite.

I? No Julita, it didn't matter to me. Those are big words. A plus is required to reach Europe or the NBA. But here I am happy, I have a quality of life, I have a secure present and my future and that of my children is bright... You don't have to be NBA to be happy!